New Front Door for Youth in Crisis

May 28, 2015

Effective June 1, 2015, child and adolescent psychiatric/behavioral health crisis assessment and stabilization services will be provided exclusively at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.

Adults, 18 years of age or older, can continue to seek crisis care at Netcare Access. Netcare Access provides 24-hour mental health and substance abuse crisis intervention, stabilization and assessment. This change will allow Netcare to focus its resources on the increasing demand for adult crisis services.

The Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health (ADAMH) Board of Franklin County initiated this expanded partnership due to the increased demand and acuity of youth in need of crisis intervention services. Both hospitals will focus on crisis services for individuals under the age of 18 and will ensure linkage to ongoing treatment following crisis stabilization.

“Nationwide Children's Hospital and Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center have been collaborating to provide expert psychiatric/behavioral health treatment and crisis care to children and adolescents in our community and we consider it to be an integral part of our mission,” said David Axelson, MD, Medical Director for Behavioral Health Services and Chief of Psychiatry at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, and Chief of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center. “We remain committed to working with our community partners to improve access and linkage to services in order to meet the growing need.”

“We heard from families across our community that more emergency psychiatric care is needed for youth in crisis. Strengthening our partnerships with these two premier hospitals will ensure that youth in our community have access to new and innovative ways to address their behavioral healthcare needs. We are grateful for this expanded partnership,” said David Royer, ADAMH Board Chief Executive Officer.

ADAMH is Franklin County’s authority for planning, funding and evaluating mental health, alcohol and drug abuse prevention and treatment services. ADAMH-funded services are provided by a local network of more than 35 not-for-profit providers and offered on a sliding-fee scale, making them affordable for any county resident, regardless of income.

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About Nationwide Children's Hospital

Named to the Top 10 Honor Roll on U.S. News & World Report’s 2017-18 list of “America’s Best Children’s Hospitals,” Nationwide Children’s Hospital is one of America’s largest not-for-profit freestanding pediatric healthcare systems providing wellness, preventive, diagnostic, treatment and rehabilitative care for infants, children and adolescents, as well as adult patients with congenital disease. Nationwide Children’s has a staff of nearly 13,000 providing state-of-the-art pediatric care during more than 1.4 million patient visits annually. As home to the Department of Pediatrics of The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Nationwide Children’s physicians train the next generation of pediatricians and pediatric specialists. The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital is one of the Top 10 National Institutes of Health-funded freestanding pediatric research facilities. More information is available at NationwideChildrens.org.